Dick on Defence I

Cummings introduced this hand thus: ‘One qualifying hand from the swiss of the Surfer’s Teams is a splendid example of team-work, a useful quality for doing well at teams. First of all, try it as a lead problem for Paul Marston, sitting West. You, West, hold:’

Like this:

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Normally these auctions scream trump lead, but can I really stop declarer ruffing two spades in dummy? That’s likely to be all he will need to ruff.

I would be interested to hear the trump leaders’ thoughts on this, because it was why I rejected a trump lead to try something else … admittedly something not very imaginative and, upon reflection, not something particularly good. If I am permitted to play my “take-back” card, I have been convinced by Ben to try a diamond.

I doubt that North has only 5 trumps. If he had that, he couldn’t possibly know that he had better than an 8-card fit, and he should probably have been thinking more about doubling 5C than bidding 5H.

Anyway, the risk we’re all worried about is letting the 11th trick through – which on these auctions is either by not leading trumps like the book says you should, or not taking your tricks now, like the book also says you should (depending on what hand the author is writing about).

Looks like a red suit lead to me. North is acting like a man with 4S, lots of hearts and very few clubs. Leading a club could easily let declarer ditch a diamond loser (or two). Leading a spade has obvious risks.

I may be able to get back to hearts in time later. I’m going to lead a diamond and see if we can cash up a few fast tricks in the place we’re likely to actually have a couple to cash.

I’m afraid that my knowledge of Flannery is sketchy. My understanding was that it showed a minimum opening with exactly five hearts and four spades … not really consistent with a 5H bid in that auction. My guess is that North has more hearts.

I think I’m going to lead a club, but I will freely admit to not having any strong feelings on the matter, probably as a result of not having any idea what is going on on this hand. Not the sort of lead that is likely to be successful in a newspaper hand …